FCRA registration: SC to hear plea against Centre's decision on January 24

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a plea seeking quashing of the Centre's alleged decision by which 5,789 entities lost their FCRA registration.

A bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari posted the plea filed by US-based NGO Global Peace Initiative for hearing on January 24.

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act registration is mandatory for any association and NGO to receive foreign funding.

"List this matter on January 24, 2022 before the appropriate Bench. As prayed, liberty is granted to serve advance copy of petition on the Standing Counsel for the Central Agency, the bench said.

There were 22,762 FCRA-registered organisations till December 31,2021.

On January 1, the number came down to 16,829. These are considered "live" organisations.

The officials had said the FCRA licences of 18,778 organisations were expiring between September 29, 2020 and December 31, 2021.

Out of them, as many as 12,989 organisations have applied for the renewal of the FCRA licence between September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2021.

Since 5,789 organisations did not apply for the renewal of the FCRA licence, they were deemed to have ceased to be registered organisations, an official had said.

In addition to them, renewal application of 179 organisations were also rejected by the Home Ministry due to different reasons.